Thursday 16th April 2020  

                                  

Dear Parents,

 

Here we are nearing the end of week 4 of lockdown and I hear on the news that this has now been extended for another 3 weeks.

 

School will remain open for vulnerable children and children of key workers. Please ensure you ring to book your children in. Thank you to those of you who have confirmed your requirements for next week.

 

Today many of you will have found out which school you were allocated for a year R child or a Year 3 child. Please note that you should not try to bring any paperwork in,to either school until you are asked to do so. You can however, ring to inform us if you would like to accept the place or not. Both schools have been in high demand so any places not required will be offered to those who were unsuccessful in getting a place at South View schools. If you have not received any notification it may be because you applied after the deadline and these won't be processed by the admissions team until later. If you know your application wasn't late then contact the admission team directly as they are processing all of the allocations.

 

Nursery: It seems a long way off but if you have children eligible to start our nursery then you need to be applying very soon. We already have a number of applications so please don't miss out by leaving it too long. We were full last year and some parents were disappointed not to get a place. If you contact the infant school we can email you the application form out to you. 

 

CLAIMING 30 HOURS CHILDCARE IN THE AUTUMN TERM 2020:

All parents who are working, have a 3 or 4 year old and want to claim funded extended hours (30 hours free funding), MUST make sure they have applied to HMRC no later than 31 August 2020. All parents with a code, make sure your details are up to date. You must do this every three months www.gov.uk/childcareaccount

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At last FSM vouchers are starting to be received by many parents but there are still many of you who have not claimed them or have claimed and not yet redeemed them. You are entitled to them if your child is eligible for FSM: £15 per child per week. If you are not sure of your eligibility or how to go about accessing the vouchers then please visit the school website where you can find the FSM eligibility criteria and link to the FSM hub as well as a parents’ guide to FSM e-codes and redeeming your e-vouchers.

 

The children are continuing to produce some beautiful art work which we are adding to the gallery, and Mrs Young has today taken some rainbows to Tesco in Chineham.  So if you are visiting for your shopping - look out for South View art work.

 

The message from the Government is clear - we must not give up on our lockdown and social distancing. The impact of this is working and should any of these measures be relaxed there is a huge risk of another wave of infections and more people losing loved ones.

 

So: Stay Safe, Stay In, Protect the NHS and save lives.

 

If your child is coming into school I do expect that, as a family, you are strictly observing all of these measures  because it only takes one child to start the spread of the virus if they, or you, are socialising with other people. You should not be visiting or socialising with anyone outside of your household, this includes not visiting grandparents, relatives, friends or anyone else. Children should not be playing with their friends. You are putting your child's and your own lives at risk if you do not follow these clear rules.

 

If I feel or know that there has been a breach of these lockdown rules I will not allow the children from those families to attend the school as I am not prepared to put the other children and their families at risk - as well as my staff and their families.

 

As of next week it is officially term time again so I shall be writing an update for you on a Monday and a Thursday but in the meantime if you need to speak to me about anything at all, please just ring in to either school office and leave a message and I will ring you back.

 

Finally - a huge thank you to our wonderful NHS for the work they are doing during these difficult times and remember to go to your front door at 8p.m. tonight to clap for the NHS and show your support.

 

With best wishes

 

Sheila Pape

Executive Headteacher